asymmetry

I have 5 small African cichlids and two small Blood Parrots in a 35 gallon tank.
An employee at the fish store said the mix would be fine. I got the parrots first and every week I introduced two more Africans.

They're not aggressive towards each other. The parrots are almost always together and at night have sleep side by side with a pair of Africans since I got them.

My concern is, I have two Tropheus Duboisi in there and they require 8.4-8.6 pH and are herbivorous. The same employee said that I could feed all of them Spirulina flakes, HBH veggie flakes and Dainichi reef veggie pellets.

Tap water pH is 7.0 and I slowly raised the pH with API pH up to 8.4.
It seems like doing so did not stress the parrots one bit and they all seem healthy and happy. I'm wondering what experienced fish keepers think about all this?

Dino

The fish would be better off in different tanks.

The aggression will kick in when they reach adulthood and start establishing territories.

COBettaCouple

I think that's too many cichlids for that size tank.

Barbrella

This is why we never EVER listen to anything petstore employees tell us!

asymmetry

There's about 14" of fish in there. I think I will take the parrots back. Do yo think 5 cichlids is still too much? If I only keep 5, I will eventually return 1 or two more once they start getting bigger. What do you think?

I'm beginning to see why. I've been reading as much as I can about fresh water fish and will definitely research before making another asinine decision.

I don't have room for another tank, so I'll have to take the Parrots back. Thanks for the advise!